Murderer Donald Neilson, the 'Black Panther', dies - BBC News BBC News Murderer Donald Neilson, the 'Black Panther', dies 19 December 2011 Close share panel Image caption The rejection of an appeal in 2008 meant Neilson was never released Donald Neilson, the multiple murderer known as the Black Panther, has died, the Ministry of Justice has said. The 75-year-old died on Sunday after being taken from Norwich Prison to hospital with breathing difficulties. Neilson, from Bradford, was convicted of four murders, including that of 17-year-old Lesley Whittle, kidnapped from her Shropshire home in 1975. Three years ago he lost an appeal to have his life sentence, imposed in 1976, reduced to 30 years. A Prison Service spokesman said Neilson was taken to hospital in the early hours of Saturday after suffering breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead at 18:45 GMT on Sunday. "As with all deaths in custody, the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation," he said.

Neilson murdered 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle in 1975, having shot dead three sub-postmasters during armed robberies between February and November 1974. The earlier victims had been: Donald Skepper, shot dead in Harrogate, North Yorkshire; Derek Astin, in Higher Baxenden, Lancashire; and Sidney Grayland, in Langley, West Midlands. 'Horrific ordeal' Also responsible for about 400 burglaries during a 10-year criminal career, the killer was dubbed "The Black Panther" as a result of witness descriptions of his dark clothing and powerful physique. Neilson, who had been a builder, kidnapped Miss Whittle from her home in Shropshire and left a ransom demand for £50,000. The teenager's body was later found hanging in an underground drainage system, where Neilson had secured her by the neck with wire.

In 2008, High Court judge Mr Justice Teare ruled the killer must never be released from prison, saying: "This is a case where the gravity of the applicant's offences justifies a whole life order." The judge said the three murders of sub-postmasters "involved a substantial degree of premeditation" because Neilson took a loaded firearm with him which he was prepared to use. Mr Justice Teare added: "The manner in which the young girl was killed demonstrates that it too involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning. It also involved the abduction of the young girl." The location and manner of Lesley Whittle's death "indicates that she must have been subjected by the applicant to a dreadful and horrific ordeal", he said. 'The Black Panther': Profile of killer Donald Neilson - BBC News BBC News 'The Black Panther': Profile of killer Donald Neilson By Chris Summers BBC News 19 December 2011 Close share panel Image caption He was caught after being seen acting suspiciously at a Mansfield post office Multiple murderer Donald Neilson, who has died in custody at the age of 75, was known as The Black Panther. But who was he and why was he considered so dangerous?

Neilson was born Donald Nappey in August 1936 and his surname made him the target for bullies both at school and during his National Service in Kenya, Aden and Cyprus. But he relished army life and picked up an interest in guns, which he would maintain throughout his life. However, his fiancee Irene, whom he married in 1955, persuaded him not to pursue a career in the services and instead to come back to Bradford and settle down. Their daughter Kathryn was born in 1960, and it was at this time he decided to change his name by deed poll to Neilson. Neilson started work as a carpenter but he struggled to make ends meet, later failing to make a success of a taxi firm and a security guard business. As financial success continued to elude him, he became more and more overbearing and domineering toward his wife and daughter. In 1965, he began a career as a burglar in order to supplement his income. He managed about 400 burglaries without being caught, but the financial returns were low so he turned to robbing sub-post offices.

Between 1967 and 1974 he carried out 19 such robberies in Yorkshire and Lancashire - but the cash taken was not enough for Neilson, who became more and more embittered and ruthless. Murders linked In February 1972, Neilson broke into a sub-post office in Heywood, Lancashire, in the middle of the night. Postmaster Leslie Richardson, who lived upstairs, was woken by noises from below. When he went to investigate he was confronted by a hooded Neilson, who shot him during the ensuing struggle. Mr Richardson was lucky to survive and was able to give police a description, the first of six photo-fits - none of which proved to be a realistic likeness of Neilson. We had let her down. I had let her down. I'm in charge, it was my fault Det Ch Supt Bob Booth It was two years before Neilson fired his shotgun again in anger and this time he took a life. On 15 February 1974 he broke into a sub-post office in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and shot dead Donald Skepper when the sub-postmaster confronted him.

Seven months later, Neilson claimed another victim, Derek Astin, in almost identical circumstances during a robbery at Higher Baxenden, near Accrington, Lancashire. The police quickly linked the two murders, and they added a third on 11 November when Sidney Grayland, 55, was shot dead at his sub-post office in Oldbury, West Midlands. This time Neilson escaped with £800 in cash and postal orders. The police interviewed thousands in the search for the killer, dubbed "The Black Panther" by the media. However, despite killing three people, Neilson's exploits had failed to rouse significant interest in the national newspapers. All that was to change two months later, when he turned to kidnap as a means of getting his hands on the financial jackpot he craved. Night-time abduction Neilson had first got the idea of kidnapping Lesley Whittle in May 1972, when he read an article in the Daily Express that gave details about the £82,500 she had inherited when her father George, who ran a coach company, died.

On the night of 14 January 1975, Neilson broke into Lesley's home in Highley, Shropshire, and quietly abducted her from her bedroom, allowing her to put on only a dressing gown. Within days of her kidnap, she is believed to have been taken to the place where she would eventually die - a deep drainage shaft beneath Bathpool Park, near Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. Neilson left detailed instructions for the Whittle family on a piece of Dymo tape that he left in the family's lounge. He also said that Lesley would be killed if he suspected the police had become involved. The family did contact the police and, although elaborate measures were taken to make sure Neilson was not alerted, Lesley's naked body was found a week later. Det Ch Supt Bob Booth was leading the inquiry and had an unblemished record of having solved every one of the 70 murders he had investigated. "I felt sick that it should have happened. We had let her down. I had let her down. I'm in charge, it was my fault," he told a documentary.

Few clues Image caption In 2008, a High Court judge ruled Neilson must never be released Meanwhile, Neilson shot security guard Gerald Smith after he had challenged him in a railway yard, where Neilson had been planning to arrange the third ransom drop. Mr Smith died about a year later. Police later conducted a proper search of Bathpool Park, the site of a failed ransom drop, where they made a gruesome discovery in the drainage shaft. A metal hawser dangled over the ledge and on the end of the hawser was Lesley - she had been strangled by the rope after either falling or being pushed off the ledge. But the discovery of Lesley's body provided few clues for the police, and the Black Panther remained at loose for another nine months. Neilson may have got away with her murder but for his own greed. He decided to go back to post office robberies and one night in December 1975 he was spotted by two police officers acting suspiciously near a sub-post office in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Routine questions As Pc Stuart McKenzie asked him some routine questions, Neilson pulled out a double-barrelled shotgun and forced the officer and his colleague, Pc Tony White, to drive off at gunpoint. Pc McKenzie, fearing for his life, took drastic action. He swerved the car, slammed on the brakes and skidded into the kerb outside a fish and chip shop. As Pc McKenzie and Pc White fought with Neilson they were joined by passer-by Roy Morris, who helped them overpower him. Neilson's home in Yorkshire was searched and police found guns, ammunition and even a model of a black panther. For several days he refused to answer any questions. But he finally cracked and made a full confession, saying that he had accidentally knocked Lesley off the ledge. In July 1976, he went on trial at Oxford Crown Court and was given five life sentences.

Donald Neilson: Murderer known as the 'Black Panther' who killed four people | The Independent Wednesday 21 December 2011 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Donald Neilson died after spending much of his life in prison for the murders of four people, three men and a teenage girl, which he committed in a two-year killing spree in the 1970s. When he was placed behind bars he was so agile, athletic and ferocious that he was known as the Black Panther. Thirty-six years later, old and infirm, he died without showing any trace of remorse or pity for his victims. He killed at least three men in the course of armed robberies which he carried out by the score. His teenage victim was Lesley Whittle, who he kept tied up and unfed in a disused underground ventilation shaft. She died from hanging, either because she fell or because he pushed her over the edge into a drain. Three years ago Neilson, suffering from motor neurone disease, took a legal case seeking his release.

Refusing him, a judge said he had subjected Lesley Whittle to "a dreadful and horrific ordeal" and had been ruthlessly prepared to shoot to kill during his robberies. He was described during the manhunt for him as Britain's most wanted criminal, his record of multiple murders placing him among the ranks of the most notorious serial killers. He was born in Bradford in 1936 as Donald Nappey, a name which attracted some ridicule at school, and later in the army, before he changed it to Neilson. His childhood was said to be unhappy, especially after his mother died when he was 11. During his time on national service in Aden, Cyprus and Kenya he found military life to his taste. According to a one-time friend, "He was small, wiry, energetic and quite fit. He seemed to enjoy playing at soldiers, fighting, wrestling, anything where he could show his physical prowess." This taste for matters military stayed with him: when he was finally arrested police found in his home a collection of guns, masks and other paraphernalia. After the army he did not settle well into civilian life, working as a builder, taxi-driver and in other jobs.

He took to breaking and entering on a large scale, carrying out at least 400 burglaries without being caught. He then moved into more serious crime, committing armed robberies at many post offices in Yorkshire and Lancashire. His practice of carrying a shotgun was to cost three men their lives. Along the way he acquired the nickname of Black Panther after the wife of one of his victims said he dressed in dark clothes and was "so quick, he was like a panther." While he often carried out detailed planning before his raids he had no compunction about opening fire when confronted, sometimes apparently acting more like a commando than a criminal motivated by money. A detective said of him: "You do what he tells you to do, otherwise you die. He was a determined man in that anyone who challenged him died." Three sub-postmasters who encountered him during robberies were shot dead in 1974, in Harrogate, Accrington and the West Midlands. In other incidents he meted out savage beatings to those who got in his way.

His most notorious killing came in 1975 with the kidnap and murder of teenager Lesley Whittle in a scheme which he conceived after reading that her Shropshire family was well off. He crept into her bedroom and kidnapped her, leaving behind ransom notes demanding £50,000. He concealed Lesley in a ventilation shaft, where she remained for seven weeks while he attempted to obtain the money. But through misunderstandings and bungles this never happened. Large-scale searches failed to locate her until, nine weeks after the abduction, her body was found hanging in the shaft. Neilson had placed a wire noose around her neck on a ledge, though he always claimed she had not pushed her and she had fallen off. It was almost a year after the abduction that he was eventually caught after two policemen on routine patrol became suspicious of him. When they questioned him he pulled out a shotgun but was overpowered, after firing his weapon during fierce struggles. Witnesses said he fought "like a wild animal". There was later considerable criticism of the performance of police, with accusations of a lack of efficiency.

It later emerged that a former Chief Constable had destroyed many documents on the case when he retired, maintaining that he had given his word that material not wanted in evidence would never be disclosed – "the reason being it might have been poking our noses into the private lives of people and upsetting families". Neilson's guilt was quickly established with the discovery of his arsenal of weapons and a fingerprint at the scene of Lesley's death. He spent nine hours giving an 18-page statement confessing to the kidnapping. At his trial he admitted kidnapping and blackmail but denied murder, saying he had carried the girl "like a baby" to her hiding place. "The situation she was in was that she did not know where she was going," he said. "She had to be reassured to let her know I was on her side, as it were." He declared in court: "I disclaim all responsibility for her death. I did not kill her. My conscience is clear as far as the act of killing her. I did not." He was given life for murder. A few days later he was given three further life sentences for the murders of the three sub-postmasters, with a stipulation that he should never be released.

Several years ago he appeared in a documentary in which he said of his nickname: "The public loved it, didn't they? I mean it filled its purpose. If they had called me the Pink Panther you wouldn't have got half the response." When in 2008 he applied to the High Court for his release a judge described his actions as premeditated and committed for gain against particularly vulnerable victims. Rejecting Neilson's application he said of his crimes: "There are and were no mitigating features." Donald Nappey (Donald Neilson), murderer and armed robber: born Bradford 1 August 1936; married 1955 Irene Tate (one daughter); died Norwich 20 December 2011. More about: Murderer Donald Neilson, the 'Black Panther', dies - Dollars BBS | News Murderer Donald Neilson, the 'Black Panther', dies (1) 1 Name: ASURA !0UZD1OR/j.

: 2011-12-19 11:11 ID:slska0wL (Image: 224x299 jpg, 13 kb) [ Del ] Donald Neilson, the multiple murderer known as the Black Panther, has died, the Ministry of Justice has said. The 75-year-old died on Sunday after being taken from Norwich Prison to hospital with breathing difficulties. Neilson, from Bradford, was convicted of four murders, including that of 17-year-old Lesley Whittle, kidnapped from her Shropshire home in 1975. Three years ago he lost an appeal to have his life sentence, imposed in 1976, reduced to 30 years. A Prison Service spokesman said Neilson was taken to hospital in the early hours of Saturday after suffering breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead at 18:45 GMT on Sunday. "As with all deaths in custody, the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation," he said.

Neilson murdered 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle in 1975, having shot dead three sub-postmasters during armed robberies between February and November 1974. The earlier victims had been: Donald Skepper, shot dead in Harrogate, North Yorkshire; Derek Astin, in Higher Baxenden, Lancashire; and Sidney Grayland, in Langley, West Midlands. Horrific ordeal' 1976 report on the case and sentencing of Donald Neilson Also responsible for about 400 burglaries during a 10-year criminal career, the killer was dubbed "The Black Panther" as a result of witness descriptions of his dark clothing and powerful physique. Neilson, who had been a builder, kidnapped Miss Whittle from her home in Shropshire and left a ransom demand for £50,000. The teenager's body was later found hanging in an underground drainage system, where Neilson had secured her by the neck with wire.

In 2008, High Court judge Mr Justice Teare ruled the killer must never be released from prison, saying: "This is a case where the gravity of the applicant's offences justifies a whole life order." The judge said the three murders of sub-postmasters "involved a substantial degree of premeditation" because Neilson took a loaded firearm with him which he was prepared to use. Mr Justice Teare added: "The manner in which the young girl was killed demonstrates that it too involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning. It also involved the abduction of the young girl." The location and manner of Lesley Whittle's death "indicates that she must have been subjected by the applicant to a dreadful and horrific ordeal", he said. Black Panther killer Donald Neilson dies | UK news | The Guardian Crime Black Panther killer Donald Neilson dies Man sentenced to life in prison for murders of heiress Lesley Whittle and three sub-postmasters dies in hospital Donald Neilson was known as the Black Panther. Photograph: PA Close This article is 5 years old Donald Neilson, the serial killer known as the Black Panther, has died in prison at the age of 75.

Neilson, was given four life sentences in July 1975 for the kidnap and murder of a 17-year-old girl and the murders of three sub-postmasters, and was told he would never be released. A charge of killing another man, security guard Gerald Smith, was left on file. The teenage girl, Lesley Whittle, was held in a disused ventilation shaft 50ft below ground where Neilson forced her to record a succession of ransom pleas. His death reduces to 46 the number of "whole-life tariff" prisoners, who have been sentenced to die in jail. The group includes the Moors murderer Ian Brady, the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Rosemary West and the Ipswich serial killer Steve Wright. A prison service spokesman said Neilson, who reportedly had been suffering for some years from motor neurone disease, was taken to hospital from HMP Norwich on Saturday after suffering breathing difficulties. "He was pronounced dead there at approximately 6.45pm on Sunday 18 December. As with all deaths in custody, the independent prisons and probation ombudsman will conduct an investigation," the spokesman said.

Neilson, from Bradford, was a former soldier and jobbing builder who enjoyed "anything where he could show his physical prowess", Jerry Corfield, a boyhood schoolfriend, told reporters in 1976. Neilson was said to have relished life during national service in Kenya, Aden and Cyprus, but his wife, Irene, persuaded him to leave the service and settle down in Bradford ahead of the birth of their daughter Kathryn. In 1960, he changed his name by deed poll from Nappey to Neilson. He struggled to earn a living as a carpenter before his taxi and security guard firms both flopped, and by the mid to late 1960s he was carrying out hundreds of burglaries to supplement his income. He graduated to armed robbery, in particular targeting post offices, planning each raid meticulously and showing no compunction about using violence if challenged. He first killed in February 1974 when, during a raid on a Harrogate sub-post office, he shot dead the postmaster Donald Skepper. A similar robbery in September the same year ended with the murder of Derek Astin, postmaster in Baxenden, near Accrington, Lancashire.

His third victim was Sidney Grayland, shot dead nine weeks later during a raid on the post office at Langley, in the West Midlands. Neilson was dubbed the Black Panther by the media in reference to his habit of wearing black clothes and balaclava, and after the wife of one of his victims commented that he had moved quickly, "like a panther". "The public loved it, didn't they?" an unrepentant Neilson would joke in a TV documentary years later. "I mean, it filled its purpose. If they had called me the Pink Panther you wouldn't have got half the response." Despite an enormous manhunt in which more than 30,000 people were interviewed, Neilson evaded capture, thanks to policing failures and inaccurate descriptions given by his surviving victims. On 14 January 1975, Neilson staged his most audacious and brutal crime, kidnapping Whittle from her bed while her mother, Dorothy, was asleep in a neighbouring room. Neilson had read about a family dispute in which the girl was reportedly to inherit £82,000 from her father.

Whittle was bound and driven to Bathpool park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, where she was held in a ventilation shaft. Her family made a number of botched attempts to rendezvous with Neilson to deliver the money; on one occasion her brother, Ronald, was directed to a spot in the park just metres from where she was being held underground. Whittle's body was found on 7 March 1975, hanging from a wire at the bottom of the shaft. It is not known whether she fell from the ledge where she was tethered or was pushed by Neilson, but the condition of her body suggested she had starved for some time before she died. Her killer later taunted the police for their failure to find her sooner, saying: "Somebody is to blame. I hold you responsible." Neilson was caught in December 1975 when two policemen spotted him acting suspiciously by a roadside near Mansfield. Challenged by the officers, he produced a shotgun and forced them to drive him to a nearby village; they eventually overpowered him. In 2008, Neilson appealed to the high court against his whole-life tariff, arguing that a 30-year term should apply.

Mr Justice Teare said there "are and were no mitigating features" of his crimes, and ruled that he must die in prison. Donald Neilson, serial killer, 75 - Google Groups Donald Neilson, serial killer, 75 Showing 1-19 of 19 messages Serial killer Donald Neilson dies Donald Neilson, the serial killer known as the Black Panther, has died, the Ministry of Justice has said. The 75-year-old died on Sunday after being taken from Norwich Prison to hospital with breathing difficulties. Neilson was convicted of four murders, including that of 17-year-old kidnap victim Lesley Whittle, who was snatched from her Shropshire home in 1975. Three years ago he lost an appeal to have his life sentence, imposed in 1976, reduced to 30 years. A Prison Service spokesman said Neilson was taken to hospital in the early hours of Saturday after suffering breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead at 18:45 GMT on Sunday. "As with all deaths in custody, the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation," he said.

Neilson murdered heiress Lesley Whittle in 1975 and shot dead three sub-postmasters during armed robberies. He was also responsible for the burglaries of some 400 sub post offices. In 2008, High Court judge Mr Justice Teare ruled the killer must never be released from prison, saying: "This is a case where the gravity of the applicant's offences justifies a whole life order." -- Please visit my town - Every visitor increases the population by one. Email: davidu...@bigfoot.com (remove VEST to reply) > Please visit my town - > Every visitor increases the population by one. > Email: daviduriV...@bigfoot.com (remove VEST to reply) Funny how I feel unaffected by this serial killer I had never heard of till now because he's obviously from England or some other part of Great Britain and I only know the top American killers and very few foreign ones. But I don't need an ocean to make me not care.

Even in my own hometown, if I pick up the paper and read about a killer on the loose or some kind of disaster that is not occurring directly in my neighborhood or at least very close to it, then it's like who gives a shit? I think everyone has a bit of that in them. Sometimes I recognize that I'm also uncaring in an ethnic way. I might pick up the paper and read about a lunatic killer on the prowl and they'll give a list of his victims names that have an ethnic tinge to them and I'll say, "Oh, that's happening over there", referring to the black part of town, and it's like now I don't have to worry about the killer but I also miss out on some of the excitement his being on the prowl might otherwise bring. I'm reading about this Black Panther serial killer and I'm thinking, "How come I've never heard of this guy?", when I came to the name of the town Shropshite and the name of the prison Norwich and I assume it's England or somewhere I've never been and never will be. But even if the killer lived near me, let's not forget, when one killer dies another takes his place.

The Black Panther will strike again, if under another name. TJ >On Dec 19, 7:57=A0am, David Uri < daviduriV...@bigfoot.com > wrote: >> >> Neilson was convicted of four murders, including that of 17-year-old >> kidnap victim Lesley Whittle, who was snatched from her Shropshire >> home in 1975. > Funny how I feel unaffected by this serial killer I had never >heard of till now because he's obviously from England or some other >part of Great Britain and I only know the top American killers and >very few foreign ones. But I don't need an ocean to make me not >care. Even in my own hometown, if I pick up the paper and read about >a killer on the loose or some kind of disaster that is not occurring >directly in my neighborhood or at least very close to it, then it's >like who gives a shit? I think everyone has a bit of that in them. >Sometimes I recognize that I'm also uncaring in an ethnic way.

I >might pick up the paper and read about a lunatic killer on the prowl >and they'll give a list of his victims names that have an ethnic tinge >to them and I'll say, "Oh, that's happening over there", referring to >the black part of town, and it's like now I don't have to worry about >the killer but I also miss out on some of the excitement his being on >the prowl might otherwise bring. I'm reading about this Black Panther >serial killer and I'm thinking, "How come I've never heard of this >guy?", when I came to the name of the town Shropshite and the name of >the prison Norwich and I assume it's England or somewhere I've never >been and never will be. But even if the killer lived near me, let's >not forget, when one killer dies another takes his place. The Black >Panther will strike again, if under another name.

Then you missed the prediction some twenty years before the fact when Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (as "Dorlock Homes" and "Watkins" respectively) attempt to bring in "the Shropshire Slasher"?...the uncannily prescient cartoon title was "Deduce, You Say"....r BBC - Legacy of Black Panther murders Legacy of Black Panther murders The Black Panther was captured after a fierce fight The nightmare for the Whittle family of Highley began on the morning of 14 January 1975. Dorothy Whittle went into her teenage daughter Lesley's bedroom to wake her up and found the bed empty. In the lounge of the house were three ransom notes demanding £50,000 and no police involvement. Seven weeks later, after a series of misfortunes, which meant the ransom was not delivered, Lesley Whittle's body was found hanging in a drainage shaft. It was to be 11 months before the man who kidnapped and killed the 17-year-old student was captured and the true horror of what happened emerged.

Early career In July 1976 39-year-old Donald Neilson was convicted of the murder and kidnapping of Lesley Whittle after a trial at Oxford Crown Court. He was sentenced to life in prison. Donald Neilson married Irene Tate in 1955 Two weeks later he was given three more life sentences for the murders of three sub postmasters bringing an end to his 10-year criminal career. In June 2008 his appeal to have his whole life sentence reduced to 30 years was refused by the High Court and he was told he would die in jail. Mr Justice Teare said: "It is plain from the sentencing remarks of the judge that the applicant was ruthlessly prepared to shoot to kill if he considered such action necessary. "The murder of the young girl in March 1975 followed upon an abduction of her for gain. The location and manner of her death indicates that she must have been subjected by the applicant to a dreadful and horrific ordeal." Unhappy childhood Donald Neilson was born Donald Nappey in August 1936. His surname made him the target of bullies at school and during his National Service which took him to Kenya, Aden and Cyprus.

Gerry Corfield said Donald Neilson loved playing soldiers It was during this time that he developed a life long love for guns and other military trappings. His mother had died when he was 11 and his childhood was described as "unhappy". Gerry Corfield, a boyhood friend of Neilson's said in a BBC documentary: "He was small, wiry, energetic and quite fit. He seemed to enjoy playing at soldiers, fighting, wrestling. Anything where he could show his physical prowess." Changed his name He loved the military life, but was persuaded by his fiancee, Irene, to leave the army and pursue a career in civilian life in Bradford. Neilson's daughter, Kathryn, was born in 1960 while the couple were living in Grangefield Avenue, Thornaby in Bradford. Lena Fernley was a lodger with the Neilsons in Bradford It was then that he decided to change his name, because he did not want Kathryn to be teased as he had been. Lena Fernley was a lodger with the couple: "He did say one time that he didn't like the name and it might be an embarrassment to Kathryn as she grew older.

Neilson's ice cream van used to pass often. He used to get ice cream for Kathy. He said 'I like that name'." His attempts to make a living were not successful. His businesses as a carpenter, taxi driver and security guard failed to bring the financial rewards he craved. He turned to crime and in 1965 began his career as a burglar to supplement the family's income. Road to murder Neilson committed about 400 burglaries without being caught, but wanted more money. He turned to robbing post offices and between 1967 and 1974 he carried out 19 raids in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Donald Skepper was the first of Neilson's victims to die He was still dissatisfied with the return from his crimes and became ever more ruthless. In February 1972 he broke into a sub-post office in Heywood Lancashire in the middle of the night. The hooded Neilson was confronted by post master, Leslie Richardson who was shot and injured during a struggle. Two years later, Neilson entered a sub-post office in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and committed his first murder. He was confronted by Donald Skepper, who was shot dead.

More victims Derek Astin from Accrington was the second man to die It was just seven months later that Neilson killed again, this time in Lancashire. Derek Astin ran the sub-post office in Higher Baxenden, near Accrington. He woke on the night of 6 September 1974 to find a masked man in the flat were he lived with his wife and children. He grappled with the intruder and was shot and badly injured. He died soon after arriving in hospital. Police were now convinced that the same person was responsible for the attack on Leslie Richardson and the two murders. More clues Sidney Grayland was the third and last postmaster to die The police were accumulating more clues, but still had no real idea of what the killer looked like. The final postmaster to die at the hands of the man known as the Black Panther (because of the dark clothing he wore and his athletic build) was Sidney Grayland, who lived with his wife Margaret at Langley in the West Midlands. The Graylands were stocktaking in the early evening of 11 November 1974 when Neilson knocked on the back door of their shop.

He was shot in the stomach, but not before he had squirted his assailant with ammonia. Neilson ripped off his mask as Margaret Grayland came into the room. Fearing he could be identified, he beat her savagely, fracturing her skull in three places. Lights still on Margaret Grayland was badly injured by Donald Neilson The murder was discovered by two police officers on the beat who noticed that the lights were still on in the post office just before 11pm. They found Mr Grayland dead and his wife badly injured, and £800 in cash and postal orders missing. Margaret Grayland did recover, but was unable to describe her attacker. A reward of £5,000 was offered by the Post Office after the murder of Derek Astin, but after the third shooting it was increased to £25,000. Still Donald Neilson remained at large and unsuspected. Ransom plan The home Lesley Whittle shared with her mother In the meantime, inspired by reading accounts of a kidnapping and ransom plot in America, he was planning his most ambitious crime to date.

He had seen a newspaper article about the legacy Lesley Whittle had received from her father George, a former miner who founded a coach company with his two brothers. After meticulous planning he made his way to the Whittles' home at Highley in Shropshire and in the early hours of 14 January 1975, the Black Panther cut the phone lines outside the house and broke in through the garage. He went to Lesley's bedroom, gagged the terrified teenager and took her to his green Morris car where he tied her up and laid her down on the back seat. She was wearing only her dressing gown and slippers. Underground lair Neilson drove Lesley to Bathpool Park at Kidsgrove in Staffordshire where he forced her down into the drainage shaft of the nearby reservoir. Lesley Whittle spent her last days in a drainage shaft It was here on a platform that she was to spend the last few days of her life - alone, cold and naked, tethered to the side of the shaft by a wire noose.

Neilson had planned to collect the ransom money from Lesley's brother Ronald Whittle, who was to follow a complicated set of instructions culminating in the money being dropped down another drainage shaft close to where Lesley was being held. Before he left the house in Highley Neilson had left a ransom note on Dymo tape demanding £50,000 and warning the family not to involve the police. Catalogue of errors What followed was a series of disastrous misunderstandings and errors that sealed Lesley Whittle's fate. The family did contact the police, but great care was taken to make sure Neilson was not aware. Scotland Yard were brought into the case and had planned to rescue Lesley and catch the Black Panther at the same time. The kidnapper instructed Ronald Whittle to take a suitcase containing the ransom money to Bathpool Park. He set off, but he was unfamiliar with the area and got lost, arriving at the spot 90 minutes late. He was also unable to find a torch that Neilson had left as a signal. West Mercia Police officers put some of the blame for the failed operation onto Staffordshire Police when a patrol car was seen driving through the area.

A courting couple in a car had also parked up near to where the ransom was to have been left. Car dumped A search of Bathpool Park by West Mercia Police officers revealed no clues, but a week later West Midlands Police contacted the West Mercia Force. A car had been left near a Freightliner railway terminal in Dudley, where security guard Gerald Smith had been shot and injured. The shooting had happened on the same night as the failed ransom drop at Kidsgrove. In the car was a cassette tape with Lesley Whittle's voice on it, her slippers and plastic tape, which linked Neilson to the kidnapping. Ballistics evidence also linked him to the shooting. It was not until early March that a full search of Bathpool Park was carried out. Body found Police discovered Lesley Whittle's body in the park Questions were asked about why police took so long to search the park. Valuable evidence came to light, some of it handed in by members of the public who were unaware of its significance. Then the first of two shafts along the Bathpool drainage system was opened. That was where the ransom was to have been dropped. It yielded nothing, but the second shaft soon revealed its terrible secret.

On a ledge part way down was a mattress and a sleeping bag. Lesley Whittle's body was found hanging below the ledge. A post mortem examination concluded she had died shortly after her abduction of shock or strangulation. The police were now convinced that the same man was responsible for the post office shootings and the kidnap and murder of the 17-year-old student from Highley. The search for the Black Panther became frantic, but it was to be months before Neilson was captured. Pure chance He was eventually arrested by a couple of police officers on routine patrol outside a post office near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire in December 1975. Tony White one of the officers who arrested Donald Neilson They had noticed Neilson acting suspiciously and spoke to him. He pulled out a shotgun and tried to hijack the patrol car. Tony White was one of the officers involved. He told a BBC documentary: "It all happened very quickly but I got the gun off him and he was still struggling and I had my left arm cross his throat...

I began to hit him in the face with my left elbow, still clutching the shot gun in my right fist." As the gun went off the other officer, Stuart McKenzie, who was driving, jumped out of the car. Pc White thought his colleague had been killed: "I thought I'd cocked it up. I thought to myself 'I've cocked it up: He's gone'." Wild animal He then noticed Neilson was groping in the pocket of his coat: "I thought he was going to pull a gun, so I got to my feet and kicked him in the stomach." The action took place outside a chip shop in the village of Blidworth. Customers rushed to help the officers subdue and handcuff him. He fought so fiercely onlookers described him as "like a wild animal". He was taken to the police station and searched. Then his finger prints were taken. They matched one from the shaft at Bathpool Park and the Black Panther's reign of terror was over.

House searched The Black Panther's trademark masks were found at his home When officers searched the house in Bradford, where Neilson lived with his wife and daughter, they discovered a large number of guns and other paraphernalia used by the man known as the Black Panther. The attic at the house was full of weapons, masks and gloves and evidence linking him to the post office murders and the death of Lesley Whittle. Ray Wagg was a detective with West Mercia Police and worked on the Lesley Whittle murder. In an interview for BBC Shropshire he described Neilson as merciless: "You do what he tells you to do, otherwise you die. He was a determined man in that anyone who challenged him died." Planner in the extreme Guns were found in Donald Neilson's attic in Bradford Mr Wagg said although Neilson was a family man, he was really a loner and used his military background to plan his crimes: "He was a planner in the extreme in this particular case." He explained how Neilson had positioned himself so that he could watch Ronald Whittle following his instructions to make sure the police were not involved.

Mr Wagg described Neilson in the witness box at his trial as, "Calculating: He was a small man, a very fit looking man... He always tried his best to deceive but in an apparently pleasant way while giving evidence." Notes destroyed Alex Rennie was Chief Constable of West Mercia Alex Rennie, who is now 92, was the Chief Constable of West Mercia Police when Leslie Whittle was murdered. He explained why some of the notes taken during the enquiry were destroyed when he retired. He said none of the notes had been used at the trial, and he had given his word that what was not wanted in court would never be disclosed: "The reason being it might have been poking our noses into the private lives of people and upsetting families." Mr Rennie said journalists and others had virtually demanded to be given the information: "That would have been dishonest and might have caused irreparable damage to families." Donald Neilson remains in prison. He is suffering from motor neurone disease and has been moved to a specialist lifers unit at Norwich.

Bookmark with: Donald Neilson | Real Life Villains Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [ show ] Early life Neilson, known previously as Donald Nappey, married 20-year-old Irene Tate in April 1955 at the age of 18. His wife persuaded him to leave the army where he was serving as a national serviceman in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry . Their daughter, Kathryn, was born in 1960. After his daughter's birth, Nappey changed the family name to Neilson so that the little girl would not suffer the bullying and abuse he had endured at school and in the army because of his surname's similarity to the word nappy . He was also bullied because of his short stature, five feet six inches. According to David Bell and Harry Hawkes, Nappey bought a taxi business from a man named Neilson and decided to use that name instead of the former. An alternative theory, proposed by a lodger, Miss Lena Fearnley, who stayed with the Neilson family in the early 1960s, is that Neilson took the name from an ice-cream van from which he and Irene often bought ice-cream for their daughter.

Miss Fearnley told the BBC in an interview that he told her, "I like that name." Turn to crime A jobbing builder in Bradford , West Yorkshire , Neilson turned to crime when his business failed. It is believed he committed over 400 house burglaries without detection during his early days of crime. Before he became notorious as The Black Panther he was sought under a variety of nicknames such as The Phantom and Handy Andy. To confuse the police, he adopted a different modus operandi every few weeks. For example he would steal a radio from each house and abandon it nearby then when that pattern of behaviour was established he would drop it and do something else. Proceeds from simple housebreaking were low however and after stealing guns and ammunition from a house in Cheshire he upped his criminal activity which resulted in him turning to robbing small post offices. Neilson committed eighteen such crimes between 1971 and 1974. His phobia about dogs meant that he avoided post offices with guard dogs. His crimes became progressively more violent as he sought to protect himself from occupants prepared to put up a resistance to defend their property.

In February 1972 he gained entry to a sub-post office in Rochdale Road, Heywood , Lancashire during the night. Leslie Richardson, the postmaster, and his wife woke to find a hooded man in their bedroom. Richardson leapt out of bed to tackle the intruder while his wife phoned the police. During the struggle, Neilson showed Richardson his sawn off shotgun and snapped in a West Indian accent, "This is loaded." Mr Richardson saw that the gun was pointing up at the ceiling and there was no danger of anyone being shot. He snapped back, "We'll find out if it's loaded," and pulled the trigger himself blasting two holes in the ceiling. The fight continued and Richardson managed to pull Neilson's black hood off to reveal not the West Indian he had expected but a white man with dark staring eyes. Neilson then stamped mercilessly on Richardson's feet breaking several toes and kneed him in the groin. As Richardson collapsed on the floor, Neilson made his escape empty handed. Richardson gave police a description of his masked intruder which turned out to be inaccurate in many respects.

[1] Several other photofits of Neilson were similarly unhelpful to the police but one, made by sub postmistress Margaret Grayland, was extremely accurate. Turn to murder Neilson's first three murders occurred in 1974. He shot dead two sub-postmasters and the husband of a sub-postmistress as well as brutally battering sub-postmistress Margaret 'Peggy' Grayland in post office robberies. He killed Donald Skepper in Harrogate in February 1974, Derek Astin of Baxenden near Accrington in September 1974, and Sidney Grayland in Langley , West Midlands during November 1974. [3 ] The Baxenden murder gained Neilson the nickname The Black Panther when, during an interview with a local television reporter, Astin's wife, Marion, described her husband's killer as "so quick, he was like a panther". Alluding to the killer's dark clothing, the enterprising reporter ended his piece by asking "Where is this Black Panther?" and the soubriquet stuck.

The Whittle case made him Britain's most wanted man in the mid-1970s and the kidnapper was irrefutably linked to the post office shootings when he shot security guard Gerald Smith six times while checking a ransom trail and forensics showed the bullets were fired from the same .22 pistol that was used to shoot Derek Astin and Sidney Grayland. Kidnap and murder of Lesley Whittle Lesley Whittle (1957–1975) was a 17-year-old girl and was Neilson's youngest victim. Whittle was the daughter of noted coach transport business owner George Whittle, who had left his entire fortune to his second wife and their children, Ronald and Lesley. After reading about a family dispute over George's will, and three years of planning, on 14 January 1975 Neilson entered the Whittle family home in Highley , Shropshire , and kidnapped Lesley from her bedroom. Neilson calculated that the family would not materially miss £50,000 of their fortune, and so made a subsequent demand in a note left at the family home for that sum.

A series of police bungles and other circumstances meant that Whittle's brother Ronald was unable to deliver the ransom money to the place and time demanded by the kidnapper. Whittle's body was found on 7 March 1975, hanging from a wire at the bottom of the drainage shaft where he had tethered her in Bathpool Park , at Kidsgrove , Staffordshire . The subsequent post-mortem examination showed that Whittle had not, in fact, died slowly from strangulation, but instantaneously from vagal inhibition . The shock of the fall had caused her heart to stop beating. Neilson may have pushed Whittle off the ledge where he had kept her. An alternative to this scenario is that Neilson was not even there when Whittle died and that he panicked and fled on the night of the failed ransom collection without returning to the shaft, believing the police were closing in on him, leaving Whittle alive in the dark for a considerable period of time before she fell to her death. The pathologist noted that Whittle weighed only 98 pounds (44 kg) when found, her stomach and intestines were completely empty, she had lost a considerable amount of weight and was emaciated .

He concluded that she had not eaten for a minimum of three days, the length of time it takes for food to pass through the body, but added it could have been much longer. Capture and arrest In December 1975, two police officers, Tony White and Stuart Mackenzie, were in a panda car in a side road keeping a watch on the main A60 trunk road leading out of Mansfield in North Nottinghamshire when they spotted a small wiry man scurrying by carrying a holdall. As he passed the police car he averted his face, drawing Mackenzie's attention. As a matter of routine, they called him over to question him. The man said he was on his way home from work, then produced a sawn-off shotgun from the holdall. He ordered White into the back of the car. The policeman opened the car door but the gunman snapped,"No time for that, climb the seat"! The officer did so with alacrity and the gunman settled himself in the passenger seat, jamming the gun into Mackenzie's armpit. He ordered them to drive to Blidworth , six miles away and told them not to look at him. This presented PC Mackenzie with a problem.

Gently he explained to the gunman that they were going the wrong way and he would have to turn the car round. The gunman agreed but warned both officers if there were any tricks they would both be dead. As they were driving along Southwell Road the gunman asked if they had any rope. As White pretended to look, Mackenzie reached a junction in the road. Turning the steering wheel violently one way then the other, he asked,"which way, left or right"? causing the gunman to look toward the road ahead. White saw the gun drop a few inches and realised this was his chance; he pushed the gun forwards and Mackenzie stamped on the brake. They screeched to a halt outside The Junction Chip Shop in Rainworth. The gun went off, grazing White's hand. MacKenzie fell out of the driver's seat, banging his head on the road. He staggered to his feet and ran towards the fish and chip shop screaming for help. Two men, Roy Morris and Keith Wood, ran from the queue outside the chip shop and helped overpower Neilson. Wood subdued the gunman with a karate chop to the neck before Morris grabbed his wrists and held them for White to snap the handcuffs on.

The locals attacked him so severely that in the end the police had to protect him. They hauled Neilson to iron railings at the side of a bus stop and handcuffed him there before calling for back-up, and when they found two panther hoods on him, they realised that they had probably caught the most wanted man in the U.K. In the subsequent investigation, Neilson's fingerprints were found to match one of those in the drain shaft. In the interview at Kidsgrove police station when he confessed to the kidnap of Whittle, Neilson gave an 18-page statement to DCS Harold Wright, head of Staffordshire CID, and Commander Morrison of Scotland Yard, with the statement handwritten by DCI Walter Boreham. Trial and conviction During his trial at Oxford Crown Court , Neilson's defence lawyer Gilbert Gray QC contended that Lesley Whittle had accidentally fallen from the ledge and had hanged herself, and that Neilson had fed her chicken soup, spaghetti and meatballs, and bought her fish and chips and chicken legs. These claims were contested by the prosecution as lies.

Neilson had provided his victim with a sleeping bag designed to prevent hypothermia, mattresses, survival blankets, survival bags, a bottle of brandy, six paperback books, a copy of the Times, the magazines Vogue and Home, a small puzzle and two brightly coloured napkins. These items were found in the shaft, and in the subterranean canal running below it, by the police. While on remand, Neilson was interviewed by a forensic psychiatrist, Dr Hugo Buist Milne. Dr Milne's examination found no evidence of insanity. The psychiatrist told the defence team, "I've examined him and he's the classic psychopath of all time." After the case Milne said he was convinced of Neilson's truthfulness when he said he had not murdered Lesley Whittle. However, his claims that the other four deaths were accidental were dismissed by the psychiatrist as excuses for aggressive behaviour.

Neilson's defence team, solicitor, Barrington Black, junior counsel, Norman Jones and leading counsel Gilbert Gray all remained convinced of their client's innocence of murder in the Whittle case believing his conviction was simply a reflection of public opinion, a backlash of the publicity given to the hunt for the kidnapper and killer and that he should have been convicted only of the lesser charge of manslaughter. [8 ] In July 1976, Neilson was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle, for which he was given a life sentence. Three weeks later he was convicted of the murders of two postmasters and the husband of a postmistress. [3 ] In total Neilson received five life sentences . [6 ] The judge also gave Neilson a further 61 years: 21 years for kidnapping Lesley Whittle and 10 years for blackmailing her mother. Three further sentences of 10 years each were imposed for the two burglary charges from which he stole guns and ammunition and for possessing the sawn off shotgun with intent to endanger life. All the sentences were to run concurrently.

The judge told Neilson that the enormity of his crimes put him in a class apart from almost all other convicted murderers in recent years. Neilson was found not guilty of the attempted murders of sub-postmistress Margaret "Peggy" Grayland and PC Tony White but guilty of the lesser alternative charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mrs Grayland and possessing a shotgun with the intent of endangering life at Mansfield. A charge of attempting to murder a security guard named Gerald Smith whom he shot six times while checking the Whittle ransom trail was left on file because of legal complications due to fact that Mr Smith died more than a year and a day after being shot. Had this charge gone ahead, he would have told the court that the six bullets had been fired at a dog but instead accidentally hit the unfortunate Mr Smith. The trial judge recommended that Neilson receive a whole life tariff . After the verdicts, his counsel, Gilbert Gray QC, visited him in the cells below the court. He found his client in the corner of his cell curled up in a foetal position, totally broken and dejected, filled with immense remorse for Lesley Whittle and her family.

[9 ] 2008 appeal Following subsequent legal judgements in various other cases, and the implications of European Union Human Rights laws, Neilson was confirmed on numerous occasions to be on the Home Office's list of prisoners with whole life tariffs, as a succession of Home Secretaries ruled that life should mean life for Neilson. In 2008, Neilson applied to the High Court to have his minimum term reverted to 30 years. On 12 June 2008 Mr Justice Teare upheld the whole life tariff, saying: [10 ] [11 ] “ This is a case where the gravity of the applicant's offences justifies a whole life order. The manner in which the young girl was killed demonstrates that it too involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning. It also involved the abduction of the young girl. The location and manner of Lesley Whittle's death indicates that she must have been subjected by the applicant to a dreadful and horrific ordeal. ” Death In 2008, Neilson was diagnosed with motor neurone disease , a progressive and fatal condition.

[12 ] He was taken from Norwich Prison to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the early hours of 17 December 2011 after developing breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead the following day

Question: Murderer Donald Neilson was otherwise known by what name?
Answer: Black Panther